Penn State Coach Will Abide by Lesbian Policy, but Won't Discuss It

By ROBERT LIPSYTE

Published: December 20, 1991

THE Lady Lions meet the Spartans tonight and Rene Portland's voice throbs with that high octane of desperate optimism that seems to fuel the most successful coaches. "This is the season that can make us or destroy us," she said, "beat us up so bad we're done or give us confidence."

This is her 12th year as head coach of Penn State's women's basketball team and certainly one of her most demanding. While still officially an independent, the team is scheduled to play eight Big Ten teams, including Michigan State tonight at home. Next season, it becomes an official member of the conference. In this transitional season, the Lady Lions, as they call themselves, play 18 games on the road, from Tennessee to Texas to Alaska.

And this is also the first season in which Rene Portland has publicly agreed not to discriminate against athletes who may be lesbian.

Two weeks ago, Portland said that she would abide by a new Penn State University policy prohibiting discrimination because of sexual preference. It was reports of her own long-term promise to keep lesbians off her team that stoked the campus debate and demonstrations led by the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Student Alliance. That pressure, following overt bias incidents among the overall student population, eventually resulted in the board of trustees revising the university's list of protected categories.

This week, when I asked Portland about her statement, the high-octane pump went dry and her voice became low and chilly: "That is a policy I have to work under as an employee of the university. That's all I'll say about it."

That's all you'll say about it? C'mon, Coach, is it a good policy, a bad policy, will it be damaging to your recruiting style, to your future teams, to women's basketball, did you learn anything in the controversy that stirred the campus?

"I said, that's all I'll say."

This was on the telephone, but it was not hard to imagine her eyes narrowing, her jaw muscles bunching, her hand poised to drop the receiver back on the cradle.

"O.K.," I said shamelessly, "we might as well talk about the Big Ten."

"It's great," she said, the good gas flooding back. "It's like getting a new job without having to move."

If Rene Portland were a men's basketball coach, the sports literate would know her by her stats alone. Her won-lost record is 251-88 going into this season, 6-2 this season. She has dominated the Atlantic 10 Conference and made the N.C.A.A. tournament in 9 of the past 10 years. Last season, the Lady Lions were, at one point, No. 1 in the Associated Press coaches' poll, and Portland was voted coach of the year.

Portland is a Queen Bee in Happy Valley, as the conservative, insulated campus is known. Joe Paterno, who hired her during his brief stint as athletic director as well as football coach, has never spoken publicly on the issue of her use of homophobia as a recruiting tool. Maybe he's afraid of her, too.

James B. Stewart, who bears the title vice provost for underrepresented groups, never called Portland directly as the debate flared.

"I felt like calling her and asking her what was the status of her statements," said Dr. Stewart, "but the athletic department said the statements were no longer operative and we have to recognize how linked the department is to the institution."

"In other words," I said, "you were not comfortable challenging the athletic dukedom."

"I bowed to protocol," said Dr. Stewart, amiably. "But I can tell you the athletic department will be on board."

Being on board, according to Dr. Stewart, will include a workshop with Pat Griffin, a professor of physical education at the University of Massachusetts. Griffin is a lesbian and a well-known speaker on homophobia in sports.

In an earlier conversation, Griffin was reluctant to discuss the workshop because she felt it would put unfair pressure on Penn State coaches and make it a "media event" rather than a learning exercise. But she felt that airing the issue was critical to solving the problem.

"There is destruction in silence," she said. "Athletes are being harassed. Prospective coaches are being investigated for their sexual preference. Entire teams are being harassed." She told of one basketball coach who complained to her athletic director that the football players were harassing her team. Griffin said, "She was told, 'If the shoe fits, wear it.' "

Griffin applauds the Penn State policy, but thinks that governing bodies, like the N.C.A.A., have to adopt such regulations so that "no school is sticking its neck out." In the past, negative recruiters like Portland, could insinuate that schools with such progressive policies -- or even schools that offered workshops in sexual-preference issues -- were homosexual havens.

Portland will be expected to attend Griffin's workshop.

"There's no question she was the catalyzing force, a large reason the policy was changed," said Griffin. "I hope she's learned something from all this. At least now she knows people care and are watching her."